Saginaw Township's Hopevale Church receives a 53,000 square-foot new home

View full sizeJared Hamilton |The Saginaw NewsThe new superstructure for Saginaw Township's Hopevale Church, 4873 Center, is 53,000 square feet large and sits on 54 acres on the township's north side. A community open house is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 22.

SAGINAW TWP. — Saginaw Township’s Hopevale Church is entering the third chapter of its more than 50-year history.

The nondenominational church is raising a noticeable superstructure at 4873 Center, at the corner of Tittabawassee, in Saginaw Township.

“I think our history is finally going to be matched with a building that’s in a place that’s pretty prominent and I think that’s going to provide us with some neat opportunities to do ministry,” said the Rev. Mike Garner, student ministries pastor.

The church’s roughly $8 million new building eclipses the current 38,000 square-foot church structure built in 1964, said Dave Nall, chairman of the church’s building committee and 37-year church member. At 53,000 square feet, Hopevale’s new church is one of the county’s largest.

The building is the newest chapter in the church’s history, said Chris Vincent, 14-year member and church elder. He said previous chapters include the founding of the original Hopevale Church by a group of missionaries who were martyred in the Philippines during World War II and the church’s founding at McBrite School, now McBrite Manor, in 1959.

The church’s current building at 5360 Shattuck in Saginaw Township is for sale, but Nall said Hopevale will use both spaces for administrative offices and youth activities until the older building is officially sold. He said the two facilities have been dubbed “south campus” for the current church and “north campus” for the new structure, less than two miles to the north.

The church has owned the site at the corner of Center and Tittabawassee in Saginaw Township since the late 1990s, when, Nall said, church leaders originally considered constructing a new building. However, finances prevented the church from pursuing the project further, he said.

He said considerable growth within last 10 years has caused Sunday church attendance to reach about 1,400 people.

The south campus’ limited parking forced the church to bus attendees from nearby parking lots. Parking is nearly doubled at the new location.

View full sizeJared Hamilton |The Saginaw NewsThe 5,762 square foot worship center in Saginaw Township's new Hopevale Church structure, 4873 Center, can seat 1,050 people in padded chairs. A community open house is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 22.

Whereas the current location’s pew seating accommodates about 650 comfortably, the new 5,762 square-foot worship auditorium can seat 1,050 people in padded chairs, he said.

The new building includes rooms for children in every grade level with accommodations built in for children with disabilities, a kitchen, an all-purpose room, easily partitioned spaces for adult and youth seminars, a lending library, a coffee station with adjacent seating area and a lobby with room to expand on the church’s 54-acre lot, said Nall.

About $300,000 remained from the church’s first attempt to build a new structure and was combined with about $3 million in pledges by church’s members, raised through a stewardship campaign, said Vincent, who served as chairman of the campaign.

“It was a tremendous, tremendous response,” he said. “For us, that was a clear indication the Lord was blessing this entire endeavor.”

Ken LeCureux, 14-year member of the church and finance coordinator for the project, said the remaining $4.5 million was directed through the sale of bonds.

Garner said the biggest change in the church’s ministry is its revamped birth to fifth-grade children’s ministry. He said typical Sunday school classes will combine with large group teaching and small group application courses on Sunday evening.

Hopevale Church will begin worship services at 9:15 and 11 a.m. Aug. 8 in the new building. A community open house is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 22.